Apparatus for feeding tapered articles



ug 8, 1944 R. w. HARRIS TAL 2,355,158

APPARATUS FOR FEEDING TAPERED ARIILCLES original Filed Feb. 27, 1941 Patented Aug. 8, 1944 APPARATUS FOR, FEEDING TAPERED ARTICLES Richard William Harris `and George Dearsley, Deptford, London, England, assignors to Molins Machine Company Limited, London, England Original application February27, 1941, Serial No.

Divided and this application January 21, 1942, Serial N0. 427,672

1 Claim.

This invention concerns improvements in apparatus for feeding tapered articles (e. g. cartridges).

The present application is a division of our copending patent application Serial No. 380,934, led February 27, 1941, in which there is claimed apparatus for orienting articles of similar size and shape, wherein the 'articles to be oriented are received by a pair of elements having cylindrical or other curved opposed surfaces (e. g. rotatable rollers) which are arranged spaced apart by a distance such that the articles can be supported therebetween by engagement of the enlarged portions of the articles while a part of each article so supported is directed downwardly between said surfaces, at least one of said opposed surfaces being arranged to move in an upward direction. Such apparatus is referred to below as apparatus as specified.

According to the invention to which the present application is particularly directed, there is provided other than in combination with apparatus as specified, apparatus for feeding tapered articles (e. g. cartridges) wherein spaced downwardly inclined guide elements are adapted to engage an article which is between them, below its centre of gravity and wherein an article is adapted to enter the space between the guide elements with its smaller end pointed downwardly and with a component of movement in the direction in which the guides slope downwardly, the guide elements being adapted to afford suflcient resistance to the continued free forward movement of the article so as to cause it to tip over forwardly.

One embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

Figure 1 shows a so-called rimless cartridge.

Figure 2 shows a side elevation partly in section f an apparatus for feeding the cartridges.

Figure 3 is a view of Figure 2 taken in the direction of the arrow A.

Referring to the drawing, the cartridges to be fed are, as shown in Figure 1, 7.92 mm. Mauser cartridges having no flanges at their larger ends. The cartridges each comprise a tapering casing 44 which at its smaller end is stepped down to receive a bullet. At a point near to the large end of the casing the latter is provided with a narrow, shallow circumferential groove 45. At no point is the cartridge of greater diameterY than at the bigger end of the tapering casing.

The cartridges are carried in a row on a support which may comprise a pair of rotatable rollers 50 between which the cartridges hang with their smaller or pointed ends directed downwardly as described in the` aforementioned'parent application Serial No. 380,984 and move along'such support in the direction of the arrow B, Figure 2. When the cartridges reach the end of the support they are engaged by guides 6| and 62 which guide the cartridges so that they are delivered on their sides on to a support described below.

4Each of the guides 6| and 62 comprises a pair Vof rails spaced apart. The rails of the guide 62 are closer together than the rails of the guide 6| and as seen in Figure 2 allow lthe nose of a cartridge to extend between them but are too close to allow the shoulder to pass through. The pair of rails 62 thus tend to cause the cartridges to tip over forwardly while the pair of rails of the guides 6| prevents any appreciable lateral movement of the cartridges as they move down. The cartridges are, when they are discharged from the rollers 50, directed point downwardly and they are, therefore, moved through substantially 90 while being delivered on to the support. The upper or larger portions of the cartridges tip forwardly due to the fact that the points at which the cases are engaged by the guides are below the centres of gravityof the cartridges and due to a component of movement in the direction `in which the guides 6| and 62 slope downwardly. This component of movement is derived from the downward movement along the rollers 50. The rails of the guide 62 are adapted to afford sufficient resistance to the continued free forward movement of the cartridge to cause the latter to tip over forwardly. This movement may be better understood by reference to Figure 2 where cartridges are shown in chain llnes in the upper and lower positions. The straight guides 6I and 62 merge into curved guides 63 which deliverI them to the support. A top guide |00 controls thev heads of the cartridges during their movement between the guides. The guides 6| and |00 are liked to a bracket |0|, shown in section, and the guides 62 are fixed to the guides 6| as shown in Fig'- ure 2.

The cartridges may be removed from the support in any desired manner. In the drawing the support shown consists of a fiuted drum 64 fixed to a spindle 65 `rotatable in bearings in a housing 66 which is fixed on a machine bed 61. All

these parts are elements of a machine for assemcartridges from the rollers 50 is not at all times regular, thus the provision of areserve is desirable when the machine is operating. The guides 6I and 62 operate to tip the cartridges forwardly only when the top cartridge of the reserve is below the level at which it would be engaged by the nose of a cartridge when the latter is located between the guides. If the height of the reserve is above this level, the forward tipping of a cartridge is effected due to the engagement of theV tip thereof with the top cartridge in the reserve and due to its forward component of movement. All this can be seen by reference to Figure 2 where C4 and C5 represent the top and bottom cartridges respectively of a reserve of cartridges. 'I'he reserve' will not necessarily be constant and the number of cartridges shown in the drawing is only illustrative of one possibility as the number of cartridges in the reserve will fluctuate according to the number of cartridges fed from time to time. `Cl, C2 and C3 represent likely successive positions taken up by a cartridge as it' falls from the rollers 50 and shows the starting of the tipping at C2 and continuing at C3. It will be seen that the guide |00 merely acts to prevent the cartridges from moving out of control of the guides 6|, 62.

, What we claim as our invention and desire to secure-by Letters Patent is:

Apparatus for feeding elongated articles which are tapered in the direction of their length, said apparatus including a support substantially horizontally disposed, downwardly curving guide members disposed in laterally spaced relation to receive a succession of articles therebetween in a generally upright position and to deliver the same in a downward direction to a generally horizontal position on to previously fed articles lying horizontally on said support, the spacing between said guide members being such that an article disposed in a generally upright position intermediate said members, so that its taper is down'- ward, is frictionally retarded Vby engagement with said members below its center of gravity only, whereby the article is caused to tip forwardly from the generally upright position toward the horizontal position during its downward passage between the guide members, and a second pair of guide members adapted. to guide the larger ends of thearticles.

RICHARD WILLIAM HARRIS. r GEORGE DEARSLEY. 

